Lime Magazine (Singapore Magazine)
January 2004 Issue


Transcribed by killer_smile27 of Faithful 4ever's Forum


Star Appeal

By lopping off his luscious locks, Vanness Wu hopes to disassociate hinself with his pretty boy image. Lime meets the crimson-lipped one when he was in town to promote debut movie Star Runner and wonders if all the hype has finally died down.

Getting an assignment to meet

Taiwanese heart-throb Vanness Wu in the flesh is a little like a death sentence especially if you have the gall to let your gal pals in on the news. But what's the big deal about some guy with a girlish name like Vanness? I have a feeling I'm about to fins out real soon.

We arrive at the Conrad Centennial Singapore on a cloudy Wednesday afternoon for the Star Runner press conference with the F4 member and Korean belle Kim Hyun Joo. If our past coverage of the follicled four is any gauge at all, we half expect to see groups of resourceful F4 fans armed wit placards and teddy bears. But there are none. In fact, the atmosphere is eerily quiet as nonchalant hotel guests come and go, completely oblivious to the Asian demi-God hovering somewhere in the midst.

In the ballroom where the press conference will be held, the neat rows of chairs are barely filled. And if any of the female press are looking forward to seeing Vanness, they're hiding it very well. It makes you wonder, has the hype that once surrounded that fab four finally died off?

Then it happens. Vanness appears and all of a sudden , manic excitement sweeps across the room. The sluggish media hop to their feet, craning their necks for the glimpse of the wonder boy while camera-wielding photographers rush towards the makeshift stage. Now, this is more like it.

Vanness looks tad irritated as he crashes his lanky body down on the couch. Not that I'm ogling him, but with his legs splayed and DKNY jacket half zipped to reveal a tiny it of taut male cleavage, it's not hard to see why women would be attracted to him. I mean, this guy is nothing if not pretty. His rosebud lips are pursed in a seductive pout, slitty eyes peeping from behind his wispy fringe. Yup, he's a looker all right even without his signature locks but it's not exactly the kind of rep he wants to carry around with him. "It's a flattering thing," he retorts when LIME comments on his good looks. "But it's not what I base a lot on." Right.

Vanness is in town to promote his debut movie, Star Runner. Don't be folled by the title though, Star Runner has nothing to do with the running. The sport of choice in this case is boxing. Vanness plays Bond, a rebellious student and amateur boxer more interested in catching catnaps, during class than attending them. Quick to let his fists do the talking, he harbours big dreams of beating the defending boxing champion, Tank. Then a new Korean language teacher (played by Kim Hyun Joo) shows up in class one day and turns Bond's life around. Sparks fly between them and soon tongues start wagging as the student-teacher romance begins to blossom. This scenario isn't too much of a stretch for Vanness. "I was infatuated with a teacher before," he confesses. "But of course, I didn't know any better as I was only in primary school. It was a good thing really, because I would happily go off to school hoping to see more of her. But it didn't mean I had better grades because I spent most of my time staring at her."

Set as the prequel to director Daniel Lee's hit movie, A Fighter's Blues (which starred Andy Lau), Star Runner will include gong fu legends Gordon Liu and Ti Lung. If that's not intimidating enough, there's the inevitable comparison with Andy Lau. But the self-assured Vanness brushes aside all that talk. "I've given my all in portraying Bond, any comparisons between myself and Andy Lau will not affect me."

He signed up for what he felt was "an opportunity of a lifetime" largely based on the "very well-written" script. While Vanness has his acting career in sight, the director is banking on the teen idol's huge fan base to push the movie along. In fact, he was so certain of Vanness' appeal, he scripted a sequel even before filming wrapped. Says a bemused Vanness, "Before we even finished one of the first fighting scenes, the director came up to me and said, 'Vanness, I have something to tell you but you have to promise to say yes.' So I did. He then told me he had already thought of a script for part two!"

Acting in her first Hongkong production is Vanness' pretty companion Kim Hyun Joo. Needless to say, all the guys present are pleased as punch to have other eye candy to gawk at besides Vanness. This is Kim's first foray into the genre although the starlet has appeared in numerous Korean period dramas.

Although Kim thinks Vanness is "really dashing, cute and intelligent", there were no sparks on the set. However, Vanness scored brownie points when he braved the Hongkong summer and slogged it out without so much as a single complaint. "I was very impressed with the dedication of the crew, especially Vanness'. It was summer in Hongkong when we were filming and everyone got a bit edgy and grumpy since it was so hot. But Vanness never threw a tantrum. No matter how tiring some days were, he never got impatient of angry."

Apart from adding a featire film to his already extensive cache of achievements, Vanness has just finished recording demos for his sophomore solo album following Body Will Sing 9it sold 25,000 copies in Singapore). Fans can expect the record, which he claims to be a "180 degree turn from the first one" sometime this year. Apart from getting his CD in ship-shape, he'll also be busy filming the sequel to Star Runner.

Vanness isn't the only one with full schedule. F4 bandmates Ken Zhu, Vic Chou and Jerry Yen have also been filming their coffers with retirement dough. Ken's been busy promoting his movie Sky Of Love as well as new TV serial Love Storm which, incidentally, stars Vanness' allegedly love Vivian Hsu. Meanwhile, Jerry's first big-screen outing Magic Kitchen with Sammi Cheng will be premiering in the cinemas this month while filming has just wrapped for Vic's debut flick Judo Chart and TV drama Love Storm.

With each of the boys clamouring for movie deals, is there any bad blood brewing among them? "Oh no, there's no rivalry," says Vanness. "There's only mutual respect and support. It's pointless to have any rivalry with the very people you started this whole thing with." As girls Asia-wide wait with bated breath, Vanness assures us, "F4 will work together again. I'm not sure when but hopefully soon. There've been arrangements for that."